Aquarium Chronicles: The New Tankmate

[Mario Fan]

Here is the suspenseful chapter 2. The ending's a cliffhanger. I will continue to post the chapters to the "New Tankmate" series of my stories in this thread as to avoid wasting space. So, here's chapter 2!

Chapter 2

Ghent had spent the last three days frenziedly searching for the elusive new tankmate. Carl had told him to give it up, but Ghent had some sort of primal, instictive rage building inside his aggressive body. For some reason, he already considered the new fish a rival, a fiend…an enemy. He never did think of asking someone, for he was too proud. The tetras and cory doras are mindless anyway, he thought. When Carl noticed his friend wasn’t even actively scavaging at night, he got worried. “Ghent, you’ve been obsessed with this…this invisible threat. It might be a school of tetras for all we know.” Carl started to chuckle. “Just thing; you might be getting all upset over a bunch of stupid neons!”

Normally, Ghent would have found that hilarious, but even Carl’s normal humor couldn’t arouse his old self once again. He was under the control of a more powerful force. “Stop joking around, spike head,” he growled. “I know this new fish isn’t an ordinary one. Besides, tetras would be out and about, even if they were afraid of getting eaten.”

Carl sighed, “Whatever you say. I’ll be back when you’re in a better mood.” Carl swam away, leaving Ghent feeling incredibly sorry for himself.

Ghent would of closed his eyes in despair if he had had eyelids, but instead, he just sighed. “I’m sorry Ghent. It’s just…something.” Ghent went off into the fartherst area of the tank, one no one controlled. It was here, in a clearing with the high plants all around, that he came to ponder and consider…think and contemplate. Maybe it won’t be so bad. Ghent grinned. What if it’s a female red-tail!

Suddenly, a tall plant rustled somewhere behind him. With lightning-fast reflexes, he whirled around and rammed the plants, only to hit his head against the side of the tank and barely see an orange blur move past him. “What in the…” he thought. Plants were rustling all around him now, so he turned in every direction until he saw a slight flicker of movement inside a rock alcove. He rushed over too it, seething all the way. “It’ him!” was his minds exclamation.


Outside the fish tank, the Giver welcomed his young nephew, Thomas. “Hi, Uncle! Can I see your fish tank!?”

The Giver rubbed the boy’s head and nodded. “Sure it’s downs…” the phone rang. “Go ahead. Just don’t touch the fish, ok?”

The boy nodded and ran downstairs to his uncle’s 150 gallon fish tank.


As Ghent approached the cave, a huge, disfigured thing came into his face, forcing him back. It was huge and orange, with a curved spine, and it bobbled around like a fool. It was a freak! It’s huge eyes swiveled, looking everywhere. “Hello…friend?”

Ghent’s lips curled and he backed up. “Friend? I don’t think so! You’re the ugliest thing I’ve ever seen!”

The massive, bulbous head of the fish looked down to the ground. “I’m…a blood parrot. I’m sorry you don’t like me.”

Ghent would have said something, but the lid was opening, and that meant food, so he rushed to the top, forgetting about the freakish thing he had seen, since he considered it not to be a threat. Instead of finding food though, he found an ominous hand reaching down to grasp him. The boy ouside the tank, who was not the Giver, laughed. “Hehe, I wanna’ see fish up close! Uncle won’t mind if we pway!!!!”

 

[Danny - the lost soul---]

A+++++++ in my book. Very GOOD worh there. thanks for a great story.
Keep 'em coming.
Danny

 

[William]

just giving this a bump so people can read chapter two its just about to get very interesting I think

 

[gadazobe]

Great story - but dont keep us in suspense too long -

 

[Mario Fan]

Chapter Three

Ghent’s heart skipped as many beats as you can before a fish will die as the hand closed in on him. The horror of the cackling, malicious child and the image of him being smashed to death was too much for him to bear when…

“I’m coming!!!” Carl yelled as he rammed Ghent out of the way.

To Ghent’s horror, after he had regained his senses, the evil child scooped Carl up in his hands and brought him out of the tank! “NO!!!” Ghent yelled as the child swung him around the room. In an amazing display, Ghent flopped out of the water for an instance, allowing a battered Carl to jump back in the tank. Ghent swam his buddy down to rest, but the terror was not over yet.

The child now reached for easier targets: tetras. He was slinging them out on the floor, while laughing like a demon. Ghent had never been one to consort with tetras, but something about this vicious slaughter aroused the same basic instincts he had had before. Summoning all the powers of history’s prehistoric fish, he rammed the child’s hand, causing a small cut. The child screamed out and was frantically chasing Ghent around, knocking over ornaments.


The Giver, who had got off the phone and was not talking with his nephew’s father, his brother, heard the cry. “That sounded like Thomas. What’s he up to?” So, they both hurried downstairs.


Ghent swam, with fishey adrenaline pumping through him, left and right, up and down, all while trying to escape that terrifying hand. He dodged falling ornaments and frenziend schools of tetras, all in attempts to escape! It was chaos. It was then that the hand backed him into a corner. “I got you know, you fishey!” screamed the child over tears. “You gonna pay fo’ hurting my finger!”

Ghent tried to imagine life in fishey Heaven when he saw the most beautiful sight in his life. It was that blood parrot, freakish as he was, coming forward with something behind him…something big. “Old Pete!” Ghent exclaimed.

The massive spiked-plecostomus swam up and gouged the attacker’s hand in all possible places, serving as an impetus for the hand to jerk out of the water and the child to clutch his bleeding hands.

That’s when the Giver came in. “MY FISH TANK. MY TETRAS. WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?” Ghent smiled as the child received a swift and appropriate punishment.

The next few hours, after their tormentor had left even worse than when he was gouged, the tetras were given a proper burial, and things were back to normal. With some encouragement from Carl, Ghent approached the blood parrot. “Hello, what’s your name.”

The blood parrot perked up, suddenly lookind unique and wonderful rather than ugly. “My name’s…Mark…you wanna’ be friends?”

Ghent would’ve smiled if fishies could’ve. “Sure, my name’s Ghent…pal.”


Next Story Coming Soon….

 

[kittyuk]

Wow, that was a beautiful, exciting story,
thank you